March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Dozens of tornadoes cut a path
across five states in the U.S. Midwest and South yesterday,
smashing houses and damaging schools. At least 27 people were
killed, the Associated Press reported.

The storms, the second swarm this week, hit hardest in
southern Indiana, northern Kentucky and northern Alabama.
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear declared a statewide emergency,
allowing municipalities to access state resources for public
safety and recovery efforts, according to an e-mailed statement.

Fourteen people died in Indiana, 12 in Kentucky and one in
Ohio, AP reported, citing state authorities.

At least 44 tornadoes were reported in five states,
according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman,
Oklahoma. Watches were in effect in nine states, meaning the
storms had a good chance of forming. Weather service radar was
tracking potential cyclones in Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama,
Tennessee and Ohio.

In Clark County, Indiana, a high school was “extensively
damaged,” said Major Chuck Adams of the sheriff’s office.

“There is a lot of extensive damage from Borden, Indiana,
in the western part of the county all the way to the eastern
part,” Adams said by telephone yesterday. “The hardest hit was
Henryville, about 19 miles north of the Ohio River.”

As many as 23,000 customers lost power, according to a
statement from the Kentucky governor’s office. Heavy damage was
reported in Morgan, Trimble, Pendleton and Kenton counties,
according to the statement.

Flash flooding was reported on U.S. 25 and KY 1344 in
Middlesboro, Kentucky, the state said.

Tornado Clusters

The outbreak of storms arrived earlier than tornado
clusters usually form, Greg Carbin, warning coordinator
meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman,
Oklahoma, said in a telephone interview. These types of storms
are more common at the end of March or April, he said.

The tornadoes were also unusually powerful and long-lived,
Carbin said.

“These were very strong, violent tornadoes and not only
were they strong and violent but they were on the ground for a
long period of time,” he said.

The outbreaks are caused in part by warm, moist air from
the Gulf of Mexico feeding large winter-type storms, he said.

Airport Closed

Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport was
closed from about 4:30 p.m. to 5:35 p.m. local time yesterday
because of debris on the runway, Barbara Schempf, a spokeswoman
for the airport in Cincinnati, said in a telephone interview.

“We had to remove debris that came from the storm, papers,
and tree limbs and that,” Schempf said. “But we’re back and
open.”

Tornadoes also touched down north of Huntsville, Alabama,
damaging a high school, said Paige Colburn, an officer with the
Huntsville-Madison County Emergency Management Agency.

“We’re getting a lot of injury reports and a lot of
reports of damage,” Colburn said. She couldn’t say how much
damage or how many injuries may have occurred at the school.

Storms in Limestone and Madison counties, Alabama, had
destroyed 40 homes and damaged 150 as of 4 p.m. local time
yesterday, according to the Alabama Emergency Management
Agency’s website. Both counties proclaimed local emergencies,
and Madison County opened a Methodist church as a shelter, the
agency said.

A 300-yard wide tornado struck near Posey County, Indiana,
about 145 miles (248 kilometers) west of Louisville, Kentucky,
according to the storm center.

Central U.S.

Tornadoes ripped across the central U.S. earlier this week,
killing at least 12 people, according to an e-mailed statement
from risk-modeling firm Eqecat in Oakland, California. One of
those systems was confirmed to be an EF-4, the second-most
powerful. It hit Harrisburg, Illinois, leaving six people dead,
according to the storm center.

The same storm system snarled air traffic along the East
Coast and brought snow to Boston.

Thunderstorms and tornadoes across the U.S. in 2011 killed
at least 552 people, the most in 75 years, and caused $25
billion in insured losses, making them the deadliest type of
natural disaster last year, according to the Insurance
Information Institute in New York.

From 1991 to 2010, tornadoes caused 30 percent of all
catastrophic losses in the U.S., second only to hurricanes,
which accounted for 44 percent, according to the institute.

Winter Storms

On the northern side of yesterday’s system, winter storm
warnings and advisories were issued for Wisconsin and northern
Michigan.

Wind gusts as intense as 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour
are expected early today along Lake Ontario and Lake Erie,
including Buffalo and Cleveland, the weather service said.

In Milwaukee, 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) of snow
may fall, and across northern Michigan as much as 8 to 14 inches
may be on the ground by today. Chicago rain was expected to
change to snow, making travel difficult.

Air traffic delays of more than two hours were reported at
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport yesterday, according to
the FAA.

The Florida Devision of Emergency Management encouraged
residents and visitors in an e-mailed statement to “exercise
caution” as the storm system moved into the Florida Panhandle.
The system is expected to reach Florida’s Big Bend today and
northeast Florida later today, the agency said.